The internet, or the world wide web, has become a powerful medium for selling goods and services. The internet provides access to content and e-commerce sites where people can obtain information about, see, and purchase goods and services. Typically, a user connects to various sites on the internet by knowing the address of the site or searching, with the help of search engines, for a site that offers what the user seeks. Many web pages that are displayed on the internet display one or more advertisements. The display of such advertisements is part of the business model of many web sites. Many business models on the world wide web such as content sites, search engines, social networks, and e-commerce sites rely on advertisements displayed alongside content on web pages.
Existing web sites often record information about the users who browse the site and several techniques exist for determining advertising metrics of on-line sites. Information about a user is often obtained through a state maintained in the client machine in the form of “cookies.” Additional information such as request origination may be gathered, for example, by recording the IP address of the client as well as the web site from which the request is being originated.
When an advertising impression is shown as part of a web page and users respond to the advertisement by clicking on it, this event is referred to as a “click-through.” The connection that is made when a click-through occurs can provide valuable feedback to the advertiser. The click-through provides information about the user who clicked on the advertising impression and the web site from which the connection is made. The success of the advertisement may be readily determined by studying the click-through data. Such data has been an effective measure to determine the impact of on-line advertising. However, when a user calls a phone number that is shown as part of an advertising impression instead of clicking on a link in the advertising impression, a click-through event does not occur and thus click-through data is not available.
With the advent of mobile wireless communications supporting data connectivity, mobile wireless devices are being used to browse the internet. The content displayed on mobile devices also show advertising impressions and users can click on the impressions just as they would when using desktop or laptop computers. However, given the relatively small size of the display of a mobile device and the frequently poor network performance due to high latency and low bandwidth, a mobile user does not typically browse for extended periods of time. In general, the user experience for browsing the internet from mobile wireless devices leaves something to be desired.
In spite of the poor user experience, however, the use of mobile devices for accessing the internet is growing. When content is displayed on the screen of a mobile wireless device, the user will often see advertising displayed alongside. Given that the mobile wireless device is primarily a phone, it is very likely that the device user will call a phone number displayed in an advertising impression rather than click on a link provided therein. In such a scenario, however, the web site that displayed the advertisement will not get the feedback that it would have otherwise gotten in the form of a click-through.
Hence, in order to measure the success of advertising impressions when users call phone numbers displayed therewith instead of clicking on the advertising impressions, there is a need to effectively measure the call-through rate from mobile wireless devices and provide it to the entity that sent the advertising impressions or is responsible for measuring advertising metrics.